List of regions in France
France has 26 régions, further subdivided into dÃÂépartements.
Apart from these legal attributions, regions have considerable discretionary spending for infrastructures (education, public transportation systems, help to universities and research, support for entrepreneurs). Because of this, being president of a wealthy region such as ÃÂÃÂle-de-France or Provence-Alpes-CÃÂôte d'Azur may be quite a high profile position.
There are, from times to times, discussions for giving some limited legislative autonomy to regions, but such proposals are controversial. There are also proposals of suppressing the dÃÂépartements local governments and folding them into the regions, keeping the dÃÂépartements only as administrative subdivisions.Role
Regions do not have legislative autonomy, nor can they issue regulations. They do levy taxes (or, rather, the national government gives them a portion of the taxes it levies) and have sizeable, though not considerable budgets. Their main legal attribution is to build and pay equipment costs for highschools; in March 2004, the French national government announced a controversial plan to transfer to regions categories of non-teaching schol personnel. Critics of this plan contend that it's doubtful than sufficient fiscal resources for these additional charges will be transferred, and that such measures will increase inequalities between regions.
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- RÃÂégions which are also DÃÂépartements d'Outre mer (DOM)
(Overseas departments), each of them consisting of a single dÃÂépartement coterminous with a rÃÂégion:- 971 Guadeloupe
- 972 Martinique
- 973 French Guiana
- 974 RÃÂéunion